(Adapted from a short story by Honore de Balzac)
Poor and unhappy, Raphael leaves Pauline to try his luck gambling. He loses his last penny but is given a magic skin which will fulfill all his wishes.
Helped by the skin, he conquers the beautiful Fedora. But there is an important condition attached to the skin: With every wish it .satisfies, the skin becomes shorter, and with it, the life of 'its owner. Using the skin constantly, Raphael cannot prevent it from shrinking to the size of hi's palm. All his efforts to enlarge it fail. It eventually disappears into the air, and as it does, Raphael's life is extinguished.